Jodi Arias Trial: Arias speaks to 10News Scripps sister station as jury deliberates on death penalty

4:20 AM, May 22, 2013

12:24 PM, May 22, 2013

Jodi Arias' second penalty phase trial has been scheduled to begin in September.

ABC15/KNXV

PHOENIX - Jodi Arias on Tuesday made a statement to the jury, a group of men and women who will soon decide whether she gets a life sentence or execution in the death of her one-time lover.

Arias sat down with 10News Scripps sister station KNXV-TV Tuesday night, just hours after jurors began deliberating, to speak out about the trial, her feelings about Travis Alexander's death and whether she wants to live or die.

Read a raw transcript of our questions and Arias' answers below.

How do you feel about the jury coming back with a guilty verdict?

Arias: I was shocked by the first verdict. Shell shocked. I didn’t expect to walk away but I did not think it would be first degree.

How do you think your attorneys handled the case?

I think they fought very hard. They fought like hell.

What are your thoughts on Prosecutor Juan Martinez?

It’s complicated.

Why did you say you wanted the death penalty and then change your mind?

My cousin convinced me. The way she said it. She said regardless of what happens, there's still a lot of hope and a lot of things that can be done and don't do that to your mom.

We could know Wednesday what the jury's decision is. Are you ready mentally, emotionally to meet your maker if that is their decision?

Well I'm ready to meet my maker, if that time should come, but if that's their decision it would drag on for years and years so its not really contemporaneous.

You must know all of America sits in judgment of Jodi Arias and you really have been deemed the most hated woman in America, how does that make you feel?

I didn’t know that. Actually, I feel a lot of love and support from people who write in, and believe me, and want to help me and be there for me. I just received an outpouring of support, so that doesn't reach me.

Samantha Alexander said, 'We will never get those images of our brother's neck being slit out of our minds.' How have you gotten it out of your mind?

It is not out of my mind, but mostly I avoid looking at it, but it is there and I’ve seen it.

How do you go on living with that?

I think it's suppressed a lot of times, and I think it comes out in nightmares. I've been told I scream and cry in my sleep and several times I’ve woken myself up screaming.

I don't have memories of the nightmares, so I'm not sure what I'm dreaming about.

Arias also said it was her defense teams' decision not to have her mother talk. Her mother had written a letter and her father was “fired up” to talk. She said she made a record of that with the court in sealed proceedings.